My first week in Alaska!

Wow - I've now been in Anchorage for over one week!! I can't believe it - the time has already flown by! I have so much to say, but I don't even know where to start..

First off, the last hour of the flight into Anchorage was AMAZING!! You could see the mountains, water, fjords so clearly!! I took many pictures, so I'll post some soon.

As soon as we arrived we rented our cars and headed to First Covenant Church, where we are living all summer and where the youth groups will stay for their YouthWorks missions trips. I'm so completely blessed, because for now, Amanda and me get to sleep on couches in the youth room, and it's so comfy!!

A few impressions: first, I LOVE the daylight! I feel incredibly energized because of it! It gets sort of dark (dusk-like) right now between about midnight and 3 am. But the rest of the time it's bright as can be. Every night at bedtime I feel completely awake, as if I want to just go out and do stuff. But when I lay down I then realize I am tired and sleep immediately. :)

The people here are very very nice, hosptiable, and they love telling you all about Alaska - what to do in Alaska, about Alaskan history, etc. This has been a huge blessing. After being here only 1 week, there have been 4 families in the church who have invited us over for dinner or have offered to have us shower/sleep at their homes! The church has a membership of about 200 people and they are a very tight-knit and loving fellowship. The church body is about 2/3 Eskimo/Alaska Native and they have all been very welcoming - thank goodness, because this is our home for the summer!

There are mountains all around us and I'm always amazed when I walk out of Wal-Mart and see a beautiful snow-capped mountain right before my eyes! When Alaskan's refer to the "lower 48" they always say "outside", as in, are you from the outside? Another interesting term they use is "on the bush." They use this when referring to villages in Alaska that are only reachable via plane, since they are not on the road system. There are many such villages.

The weather here has been between 55-70 daily, but usually hovers around the mid-60's during the day. It's VERY windy!

This past week has been incredibly busy and we've been working pretty much from 8 am to 11pm every day, with the exception of when we're invited somewhere for dinner. :) From 9-10 every day though we rest together and have group devotions (bible study) and then individual devotions. This is my favorite part of the day!

Because this is the first year there's been a YW site in Anchorage we've had to set up virtually everything, so we've been doing tons of shopping (with tons of shopping still yet to do), and lots of informing/educating the church here and community partners who we will be working with all summer about YouthWorks. Each person on my team of 4 has been working on their individual roles, but there are a lot of things we've needed to do as a team as well. For my role I've been working out all the details of setting up evening programming: every night we have a 2 1/2 hour fun or cultural activity we'll do in Anchorage, and every night we also have a 1 hour club (as it's called), otherwise known as a typical youth group service where we'll sing, do skits, share from God's word and have fun! There's still so much to do - I'm so glad we have 2 prep weeks! I still don't know how we'll get everything done yet, but we'll have to! We've all had to familiarize ourselves big time with the whole city and how to get all over (to all the "ministry parnerships", hospitals, evening activities). I'm glad that this is a pretty easy city to get around in!

I'm so excited for next Sunday though when youth groups start to arrive.

Ok...more later.. gotta go!